In what is being touted as a major victory for the ruling faction of the AIADMK party in Tamil Nadu, the Election Commission (EC) on Thursday announced that the party’s disputed 'two leaves' symbol will now be assigned to the Unified AIADMK faction led by Chief Minister Edappadi K PalaniswamY.

According to sources quoted by News18, the EC reached the decision after hearing arguments from the two factions of the AIADMK – one led by Palaniswamy and his deputy O Panneerselvam and the other led by ousted leader VK Sasikala. Official confirmation of the decision, however, is still awaited.

The decision comes as a big boost for the EPS-OPS camp as the symbol legitimises their claim to the political legacy of MGR and J Jayalalithaa.

"With the Election Commission restoring the 'two leaves' symbol for the ruling faction of the AIADMK, the Palaniswamy-Panneerselvam faction is now the officially recognised AIADMK", India Today TV reported.

EC has given judgement in our favour, we are very happy. Majority of party workers supported us: Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K. Palaniswami on two leaves symbol pic.twitter.com/G8vzLxjE8Z

The decision is likely to end a long-standing war between the two factions over the use of the symbol, which was escalated after the EC froze the symbol eight months ago. However, CNN-News18 quoted sources as saying that the Sasikala camp will move the Madras High Court against the verdict.

What sparked the row?

After the death of former AIADMK chief and Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, a tug of war ensued between the then party general secretary, Sasikala and a breakaway faction headed by former chief minister O Panneerselvam.

The issue escalated on 16 March, when the OPS faction sought allotment of the two leaves symbol to E Madhusudanan, their candidate for the RK Nagar bypoll to be held in April. But TTV Dinakaran, Sasikala’s nephew and the deputy general secretary, wanted to use the symbol to aid his bid to get elected as MLA and make a more legitimate claim to the chief minister’s chair later.

With both the factions contesting for the symbol, the EC decided to hear arguments of the two factions. After hearing from lawyers of both factions and much deliberation, the poll panel decided to freeze the 'two leaves' symbol of the party for the upcoming RK Nagar bypoll. The EC also ruled that neither group could use the AIADMK name.

The arguments in the case have mostly been concerned with the validity of the affidavits submitted. Both factions have been trying to establish their support of the party’s office bearers, MLAs and cadre.

The EC ruling on Thursday comes after it already missed two deadlines to decide the issue. The Madras High Court had set a deadline of 31 October 31 followed by the Supreme Court's deadline of 10 November.

Earlier this month, the factions had submitted their final arguments in writing to the EC, citing their claim over the symbol.

According to the News18 report, Sasikala's camp had argued that the present case of the AIADMK greatly differs from the Sadiq Ali case decided by the Supreme Court, which was cited by the rival faction as the benchmark. The Dinakaran faction, meanwhile, had also urged the EC to "randomly verify 10 percent of the affidavits" submitted by the E Palanisamy-O Pannerselavam faction that is currently ruling in Tamil Nadu.

Why both factions want symbol?

According to a report in The Indian Express, in addition to the fact that voters are familiar with the symbol, the symbol is unique as it can be depicted with just a couple of fingers.

The report quoted Subburaman Thirunavukkarasar, an AICC secretary who was with the ADMK’s Jaya faction in the late 1980s, as saying: "With Amma (Jayalalithaa) no more and the party lacking a prominent leader, it badly needs at least the symbol to keep it going."

Ramu Manivannan, political science professor at the University of Madras was quoted by the report as saying: "The two leaves symbol has tremendous resonance with the people since it is still associated with MGR. After his death, if Jayalalithaa had not been assigned the symbol, she wouldn’t have done as well”.

Hence, given that the party lacks a popular leader that resonates with the people, the symbol is necessary to secure the already accrued vote-bank.